What’s above (^) First World?
Were an alien (<>..<>) to land from Mars and venture around Europe would they be able to differentiate between the living standards of say Poland and Switzerland?
Yes, maybe the cars in one are shinier and the flats in the other 20% larger; perhaps the clothes in one are brighter coloured and the streets in the other cleaner…
On paper though there is a HUGE difference in GDP-per-capita? Maybe to the order of 5 times larger!
The reason our alien can’t obviously spot the difference is that both countries, and indeed most in Europe, are kinda First World.
[I’m using the term “kinda” because there are no clear classifications; originally the USA and its allies were First World, their Cold War opponents were Second World and non-aligned world was Third. The true current definition possibly follows the lines of developed [industrialised, economically developed] , developing [some industrialisation, in transition] and least developed countries.]
Given that these categories are extremely broad, my question is what is above it? What is better than First World? What is Zeroth World?
When I first looked for a definition of civilization’s progress, I came across the Kardashev scale, which ranked civilisations from Type I to Type III. The latter can control all the energy in its galaxy! According to this scale we are still on our way to Type I where we can control all our Earth’s energy which means we haven’t progressed at all in ten of thousands of years (=^_^=)
We’re going to need a more granular scale.
If First-World is the absence of Second and Third World problems then perhaps Zeroth world is the absence of First World problems.
(Third World problems include hunger, illiteracy, walking to a well for water; it not being clean when you get it. Dying of basic diseases. Getting killed by a bear…….
Second World problems are less clear; maybe it is being stuck in a queue for food, being shot by an AK-47, not having a microwave, driving a took-took or rain leaking into your house…)
But what are first world problems???
Online you can find many silly examples like “getting poor Wifi signal” or “chipping a nail”, “going to the gym and not finding a free exercise bike”.
But let us be more ambitious than that!
People in the First World still:
- Struggle to get around town.
- Have logistic problems finding and getting things.
- Stress about getting the kids to school in the morning.
- Worry about diet and allergies.
- Have to keep their homes tidy.
- Struggle to get decent housing.
- Get lonely.
- Get stressed.
- Have awful admin problems.
- Age.
Imagine if these problems and others went away! Maybe then we’d be Zeroth World?
But how do we get there?
Can we get there through annual GDP growth increments. If we grow 2 percent this year and 5 next year do we converge on this better world?
I’m not quite sure we do. As per above, we could move from $30k per capita to $50k and even $60k and there are still countries at those levels that have these problems. They don’t go away.
I don’t think it’s about increments!
None of the problems above are beyond our capability; from a technology or resource point of view. But many of them need BIG IDEAS.
Big ideas are deliberately not about incremental progress but about making a discontinuous leap. Let’s say it takes me an hour to get from my home to Heathrow Airport. How could I do it in 5 mins; how could we all do it in 5 mins. Each of these ideas may take 10–20 years to develop. HS2 is not a big idea; it’s an old idea. A big idea focuses on leap-frogging over the generational gap towards Zeroth World. An idea like that would revolutionise transport.
We need similar ideas in housing, mental health or whatever. Ideas that dramatically improve these areas.
We identify our top 10 First World Problems and use our collective resources and creativity to make them go away
….and then we’re Zeroth World!
P.S. Teaser: I’ll elaborate more on some of these ideas in subsequent articles